Transgender lives from an African perspective

Who is A Transgender Person

A Transgender person is someone whose gender identity does not match their biological sex. Someone who doesn’t identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. For most people, there is no incongruity between their biological sex and their internal gender identification. These are Cisgender people. A cisgender person is someone who identifies with the gender assigned to them at birth; someone whose gender identity is congruent to their biological sex. In other words someone who is not transgender. For transgender people, their gender identity is in conflict with their biological sex

Trans woman– A person who was assigned male at birth but identifies as femaleTrans man– A person who was assigned female at birth but identifies as male.

Can people stop being Transgender?

No. People cannot change their gender identity. Gender identity is believed to be related to neuroanatomy, hormones, and/or genetics. Although some people will “give it up,” they typically return to ‘cross dressing’ and recognize that they cannot fight their true nature.

Gender identity is NOT the same as sexual orientation.

 Gender identity – refers to how a person identifies as a man or a woman or neither. One’s internal sense of self as male, female, both or neither  Sexual orientation – refers to a romantic and sexual connection to a particular gender or genders (lesbian, gay, bisexual, heterosexual….)